Is it Wrong to Pick Up Girls In a Dungeon Volume 10

Then her eyes flared to life.

“So you think you’re hot shit, bovine bastard?”

Completely ignoring her broken ribs, she exploded with anger.

Tiona and the others didn’t have time to react to her snarling
howl, barely recognizable as a person’s voice, before Tione raced
back into battle, unarmed.

Clearing Tiona and Bete in a single bound, she hurtled toward
the raging bull with her left fist held high, challenging the beast
one-on-one.

The monster shifted to meet her head-on, pulling its own left
fist back and setting its feet.

“GRRAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!”

“OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

Tiona slammed a punch directly into the enemy’s clenched,
metal-like fist.

The resulting bloodcurdling collision made bystanders want to
cover their ears.

The tremendous impact drove the monster’s fist straight back
and snapped every bone in Tiona’s hand.

She clenched her fleshy, broken, bleeding blob of a hand tight
and threw another punch.

“?!”

Taking a hit to its solid midsection for the first time, the raging
bull staggered backward.

“I’ll make mincemeat outta you!!”

Tione didn’t stop.

Consumed by a fiery rage that became her strength and fueled
her onslaught, she unleashed a rush of punches and kicks onto
her enemy’s large body. Heel, elbow, knee, fist. As her long black
hair trailed behind like a snake, her furious dance of physical
blows shook the monster’s metal-like frame from head to toe.

“—UoHoOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

The black bull didn’t flinch, taking each blow head-on and re-
sponding in kind.

“Wh-what are you doing, Tione?!”

“Shut the hell up!!”

Tiona called out despite being knocked back, but Tione would
have nothing of it and yelled at her furiously.

Bete and Tiona looked at her with fatigue.

“No use. She’s pissed…”

Her true self had been exposed—Tione was even more of a
berserker than her younger sister.

Her offensive continued to escalate no matter how much of
her skin was torn up on contact with her enemy’s towering, solid
body or how many of her leg bones cracked in the process. Evad-
ing the occasional counterattack, she had every intention of oblit-
erating the enemy in her sights.

Living up to the sea serpent of her title, her hair whipped back
and forth as she fought with extreme ferocity.

“SHII!!”

Then, after weaving past her enemy’s massive arm, Tione put

all her strength into a left-footed kick that caught the bull square
in the face.

It was a shattering blow, even for monsters from the deep lev-
els.

Tione, who had launched the hit in the air, glared up at her op-
ponent only to go wide-eyed in disbelief.

Even with her foot buried deep in its jawbone, the black mino-
taur was still standing.

Damn, this, thing .

She had no answer.

An adventurer could never attain this amount of resilience,
this toughness no matter how hard they trained. Not only was its
defense powerful enough to break Tione’s foot on impact but its
two legs were still firmly planted on the ground.

The black raging bull grabbed Tione’s left leg, still wedged in
its face, and flung her.

“?!”

Tiona threw down her double-bladed sword and dove to catch
her sister just before she careened into a wall. However, that
didn’t prevent the ensuing explosion from the building.

“The heck’s gotten into you?!”

“Keep your nose out of it!! I told you to shut the hell up, didn’t
I?!”

The two went through the wall together, pulverizing it as they
argued back and forth. Meanwhile, Bete moved in to engage the
monster one-on-one. The werewolf unleashed a barrage of kicks
no less potent than Tione’s, while the bull howled and countered

with the Labrys. The two went back and forth, alternating offense
and defense until Tiona and Tione rejoined the battle, their argu-
ment escalating to the point of exchanging insults.

The double-bladed sword and the Labrys violently collided,
the metal boots redirected attacks, and a frenzy of physical blows
connected with the creature’s armor.

Neither adventurers nor monster surrendered a step. The rest
of Loki Familia watched in awe, and then they saw it.

“Th-that’s a grin…”

The ferocious smile on the monster’s face.

Its large white teeth had appeared from beneath a split in its
cheeks. No doubt, the raging bull was having the time of its life.

Taking on three first-tier adventurers at once and absorbing
countless hits did nothing to deter the colossal fighting spirit
pulsing through its body.

The black bull swung its head and loosed a ferocious roar.

Is it just me, or does this feel like…?

Tiona’s skin broke out in goose bumps as she weathered the
roar and brought her double-bladed weapon down for another
strike.

This sensation, I’ve felt it before…!!

Clicking her tongue in frustration at the ineffectiveness of her
attacks, Tione dove out of the Labrys’s path.

This creature, it’s almost…!!

Bete felt as though he were fighting against an extremely small
floor boss. His metal boots were a blur.

This excessive strength.

It was the same as something else, a distant shadow lurking in
their memories.

The young adventurers were reminded of a certain man.

“……”

Ottar watched the battle unfolding in the dungeon town from
the highest floor in Babel Tower.

“Do you recognize that minotaur?”

One rectangular wall was constructed entirely out of glass.
Standing before it, watching the entire scene at once from
Orario’s highest point, Freya addressed her attendant, who was
fixated on Daedalus Street.

“That…No, then again…Impossible.”

Ottar’s face remained stoic as he faced forward, fumbling
around to find the right words to respond to his goddess.

Stepping beside the warrior and taking a sip from the wine-
glass in her hand, Freya looked away from Loki Familia’s battle.

Even at this great distance, the deity’s silver eyes could see a
blur of color and a shimmering, transparent streak.

It was the vouivre, weaving a path of destruction through the
dungeon town, and the boy, hot on its tail in pursuit.

“Helen.”

“My Lady.”

A girl standing nearby straightened her posture at the god-

dess’s call, but Freya kept her back to her as she continued.

“Any word from Alfregg and the party I sent to the Dungeon?”

“They have yet to return.”

“I see…Could you catch up to the charging vouivre if you de-
parted now?”

“…I do not believe that I would make it in time.”

Taking her follower’s honest opinion in stride, Freya ordered,
“That’s fine. Go.”

As the girl made a bow and exited the room, Freya whispered
quietly under her breath:

“To think monsters like this existed.”

Marveling at this world’s unpredictability, the silver-haired
goddess smiled from ear to ear.

“—Like I’ve been telling you, my brats have been catching
those monsters.”

Gareth narrowed his eyes as a god’s confession dissolved into
the sky.

“They were after money in the black market, but the darn
things escaped, as you can see.”

“And you’re expectin’ me to believe that?”

“If my word isn’t enough, I’ll tell you right where to go in the
sewers beneath Daedalus Street. You’ll see the cages where these
monsters were kept.”

Ikelos had appeared on the rooftop with Gareth and Fels mere
moments ago when the dwarf was distracted by the black bull’s

entrance. Then, he suddenly began explaining his involvement in
the situation.

“So, how about letting Black Cloak here go, eh?”

“……”

“The poor sap’s got nothing to do with my brats. Just got
caught up in all this, is all.”

Ikelos pointed his finger a few times at the black-robed figure,
who was still as a statue, facing away.

While he wasn’t lying, he was also not telling the truth. After
decades of training under Loki, Gareth could see through Ikelos’s
faint grin and decided to press for an answer to what had been on
his mind from the start.

“And why are you tellin’ me here and now?”

“Because I lost…Had to do what the winner wanted.”

Right after he said that…

The black-robed figure jumped from the rooftop, slipping
away during a lull in the conversation.

Gareth sighed as he saw his quarry disappear over the edge
but made no efforts to pursue.

“…I’ll be askin’ fer details later. For now, ye’re comin’ with
me.”

“Yeah, sure. Just be gentle, okay?”

Ignoring Ikelos’s words and his grin, Gareth grabbed hold of
the deity’s collar.

As the battle escalated out of the corner of his eye, the dwarf

knew that time was of the essence and paid no attention to the
screaming god as he bounded through the air.

“Looks like he’s on his way.”

“…You have my thanks, God Hermes.”

—Hiding in a backstreet, Fels watched Gareth disappear from
the rooftop above and turned to thank Hermes, standing before
him.

Not only had Hermes been observing the battle from his van-
tage point on top of the brick tower, he had also witnessed
Gareth’s approach behind Fels and convinced Ikelos to intervene
with a one-sided negotiation. Knowing that the mage functioned
as Ouranos’s right hand, he had saved Fels by offering up the
deity instead.

“What can I say? The way things are now, we’re gonna need
your power to get through this, Sage.”

“…I go by Fels now, God Hermes.”

The black-robed mage sounded bashful, but the dandy god
simply shrugged.

But Hermes knew that there was no time for small talk and got
right to the point.

“All right then, Fels. As a way to thank me for saving your life,
I’ve a favor to ask…Bell is alone right now. Please help him.”

“But…were I to leave now, the Xenos…”

“Thanks to that black minotaur, things should work out okay,
don’t you think? And from what I’ve seen, Braver wants to cap-
ture them alive. Worse shouldn’t come to worst today.”

Hermes carefully crafted his argument.

A few moments passed in heavy silence, and then the deity
narrowed his eyes behind the brim of his hat.

“I have a lot of things I’d like to sweep under the rug as well,
you know? I’m sure Ouranos’s right arm understands.”

“……”

“This won’t make amends for the past but…could you find it in
your heart to do this for me?”

Hermes leaned in close to whisper beside the silent mage’s
hood.

Fels took a few moments to think before extending a hand to-
ward Hermes.

Then several black spheres, smaller than an oculus, fell from
the black glove into the palm of his outstretched hand.

“These are for an emergency. Break them to use them.”

“…Understood. I am Hermes and swear by my name. Lulune.”

Hermes handed the spheres to a chienthrope girl who ap-
peared from deeper down the alley.

Watching her disappear, Fels set out in accordance with Her-
mes’s will.

“Bell and the vouivre were headed south. I bet they’re out of
Daedalus Street, probably somewhere in the Pleasure Quarter re-
construction project by now.”

“Acknowledged.”

After Hermes had imparted what he saw from on top of the
tower, Fels sped down a path leading southeast.

The battle raged on.

Combat between first-tier adventurers and the black minotaur
had reached a fever pitch. One step forward, one step back. Of-
fense and defense switched sides every second in an epic back-
and-forth while the other adventurers gawked. However, num-
bers were on the adventurers’ side. Once Tiona and Bete ignored
Tione’s raging fury and showed some semblance of teamwork, the
monster was forced to give ground.

Just as the tides of combat appeared to be flowing in their
favor…

The monster’s next action turned the entire battle on its head.

“WOOOOOOO!”

As yet another blow connected with its armor, the black mino-
taur reached behind its right shoulder.

Those five meaty fingers wrapped around the elongated metal
ax hilt.

—Dual Axes?

Faced with the prospect of an abrupt change in battle style, the
three watched the black minotaur’s every move with nervous
eyes.

“ .”

The first one to recognize the danger wasn’t in Loki Familia’s
ranks—it was Welf.

“—We’re getting out of here, now!!”

“Eh?!”

“Just move it!!”

Shaking off the last effects of the Howl, Welf willed his body
forward, picking up Lilly’s unconscious body and grabbing hold
of Hestia’s hand. With Mikoto carrying Haruhime in her arms
close behind, Welf ran headlong in the other direction, toward
where Riveria stood with her staff held high in front of Loki Fa-
milia’s forces.

“!!”

Arm and shoulder muscles pulsing, the monster swung the
bloodstained ax down with its right hand.

The instant it connected with Tiona’s double-bladed sword—
thunder struck.

“““?!”””

A flash of light engulfed Tiona along with her weapon, and
Tione and Bete on either side of her were also swept up in the
shock wave.

Crackle! An electrical current danced across the blade in front
of the dumbstruck trio.

The blood coating it was blasted away, and the weapon’s true
beautiful golden hue came to light.

Tiona, Tione, Bete, and the rest of Loki Familia all recognized
in that moment the weapon for what it was.

The blood-splattered ax—was a magic weapon.

Finn’s face contorted, Aiz watched in amazement, and Riveria
readied her staff with incredible speed thanks to her abilities as a
magic user. Welf, who had prioritized his own familia, gritted his

teeth while the rest of Loki Familia, still on the battlefield, froze
with fear.

“OOO ”

Still reeling from the unexpected electrical shock, the three
momentarily numbed adventurers watched as the hulking black
shadow’s right arm swung the ax yet again.

The weapon rose high into the sky. The beast prepared for an-
other volley to blow all of them away.

Finn called out, and Riveria triggered her magic at nearly the
same instant.

“Riveria, the barrier!!”

Just as the last member of Hestia Familia dove into the magic
circle…

Riveria’s magic—an enormous dome barrier—took shape.

“—ooOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

The Howl tore through the air along with the shock wave.

“—Damn you!”

Bete forced his tingling foot high into the air and brought it
straight down onto the magic weapon. Brutal lightning bolts
burst forth the instant his metal boot touched the black mino-
taur’s weapon.

Blinding yellow light drowned out their surroundings. Each
bolt raced forward like one of a hydra’s many heads, with electri-
fied fangs that tore up the street and turned the vicinity into a
swirling whirlpool of destruction. Being so close to the blast, it
went without saying that not only Tiona, Tione, and Bete but ad-
venturers still out on the street had no chance to evade. They

were all caught up in the barrage.

The bolts advanced all the way to Riveria’s barrier. Ka-boom!
An immense shower of sparks flared on impact. The barricade of
green light shielded the unconscious townspeople, the young
magic users, Finn, Aiz, and Welf without so much as a quiver.

As their ears recovered from the blast, they all waited for the
smoke to clear…only to see an utter ruin before their eyes. Every
house and building that once lined the street had been razed, the
stone pavement was carved up as if by dragon claws, and the
burned, smoldering bodies of adventurers were scattered
throughout.

It looked as though the apocalypse had arrived, but they all
were still breathing by some miracle.

“S-so tingly…! I’m paralyzed~!”

“Damn it…! Why couldn’t you take the whole thing, you damn
werewolf!!”

“Want me to smash your head in, damn Amazon…?”

Just before the explosion, Bete had put his body on the line to
block the blast at close range by sticking out his metal boot—the
mythril absorbed the electricity—and greatly reducing its power.
But of course, he couldn’t block the entirety of a discharge on that
scale.

After hurtling through the air and rolling across the debris, the
three badly burned first-tier adventurers were on their knees on a
corner of the street. They were the only ones still moving, but
they exchanged harsh words despite their injuries.

Although they managed to get through the blast in one piece,
sparks traced their bodies like flashing thorns, and none of the
three could move from the spot.

“…”

Apart from where the monsters lay on the eastern side, not
even a shadow remained of the buildings on the central road
where the minotaur was standing. Everything to the west was
completely unrecognizable.

Finn narrowed his eyes as he took in the destruction, glancing
over the mountains of rubble and the monster staring up at him.

“Forget about taking them alive.”

Golden hair shifting on his head, the prum general opened his
mouth to speak.

He said from his spot, alone on the rooftop:

“Do it, Aiz.”

Suddenly, thump!

“”

With the unmistakable sound of boots on stone, the blond-
haired, golden-eyed knight landed behind the monster’s back.

“Understood.”

A soft chant left her lips at the same moment she withdrew her
silver saber.

“Awaken, Tempest.”

Her beautiful voice sounded on the breeze.

The extremely short trigger spell activated her magic.

“—VUOOOO!”

Its back vulnerable, the minotaur immediately turned to swing
with the magic weapon in its right hand.

The blond-haired, golden-eyed knight saw the electrified blade
coming toward her and quietly whispered:

“Airiel.”

Wind blew.

The moment it enveloped her body, she slashed forward with
blinding speed.

Her blade—pierced the enemy’s arm.

“ .”

Time stopped for Hestia Familia, the Xenos, and the black
minotaur.

The wind-lined blade sent the magic weapon spinning along
with most of the monster’s right arm. It twirled through the air
until it slammed blade-first into a broken piece of stone pave-
ment with the handle sticking straight up.

Electrical energy pulsed through the ground underfoot as the
gigantic monster reared back.

“ ?!”

As the minotaur screamed into the sky, blood gushed from
what was left of the creature’s upper arm; everything from
halfway above the elbow was gone.

Protected by the wind currents around her body, Aiz avoided
the fountain of blood entirely. Every drop of blood was blown
away.

Her Magic was called “Airiel.”

A wind enchantment that enhanced the user’s weapon and
physical attributes.

As they didn’t belong to her familia, that was all that Welf,
Mikoto, and even Hestia understood.

—Aiz Wallenstein.

The only being other than adventurers not to be affected by
the Howl, Hestia was taken by the girl’s majestic appearance in
that moment.

The Sword Princess. Aiz Wallenstein.

A prominent adventurer in both name and reality. Orario’s
strongest female knight.

Bell’s idol.

Engulfed by wind, blond hair flowing in the breeze, she had
the air of a fairy straight out of a hero’s tale, and she was so beau-
tiful that Hestia had to accept her as worthy of the boy’s admira-
tion.

The only one unfazed by the monster’s Howl shaking the bat-
tlefield, the girl whipped her sword through the air.

“ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The minotaur, eyes wide open, swung the Labrys down in a
counterattack.

It was a blow that had permanently removed many adventur-
ers from battle. The monster’s mobile guillotine.

And Aiz knocked it away with a single flick of her thin saber.

There was no time to take pride in her successful ambush that
claimed her enemy’s arm, nor could she let her guard down.

She stared down the flabbergasted monster, her golden eyes
narrowing.

“Here I come.”

She attacked at full strength, sword and wind combining into
their own melody.

“ AAH!”

It was a series of unrelenting, merciless strikes.

Aiz carved into her opponent’s towering body, slashing from
countless angles seemingly all at once.

Diagonal over the shoulder, upward arcing, spinning, down
from overhead—the now one-armed minotaur had no hope of
blocking them all. Gashes opened in the beast’s incredibly tough
black skin; lines appeared in the thick armor covering its body
with every movement.

Facing a bladed storm, the minotaur stepped back for the first
time.

“You know, Aiz’s magic is sooo unfair!”

“You’ve only just noticed, bonehead…?”

She moved faster than Bete, hit harder than Tiona, and struck
more often than Tione.

The Amazonian girl, unable to join the fight, watched in an-
guish. Next to her, a werewolf clicked his tongue in frustration at
one of the main reasons the girl had become known as the Sword
Princess: the power granted to her by the wind.

The monster stopped trying to defend itself and went on the
attack. Aiz charged to meet it, their blades clashing with incredi-
ble force.

Saber crossed ax. There were no sparks in the air, only deafen-
ing wind. The currents pounding against the unyielding minotaur
were far more powerful than normal, allowing Aiz’s unholy tech-
nique to land three strikes in the time it took for her opponent to
swing once.

She picked up speed.

Her face devoid of emotion, Aiz saw only the minotaur while
blocking out everything else.

Her precise strikes escalated, as if she were pushing herself to
a higher plane, progressing further than ever before.

Blood spewed from her enemy’s large body with every howl of
wind and every flash of silver.

“Th-that’s…”

Although already taken, Hestia watched in shock, her face
twitching as she gulped.

Mikoto was much the same, pale as a ghost and voice quiver-
ing.

“That’s…the War Princess.”

She’d heard the term somewhere before.

“War Princess.”

A monster slayer wearing a girl’s skin. The one standing atop a
mountain of dead beasts. Fearless, ever prowling the deepest
bowels of the Dungeon without tiring.

Welf, and even the other members of Loki Familia, beheld the
incredible girl with a mixture of awe and fear as she danced amid
the fountains of blood, though her wind protected her from the
spray.

The wind screeched louder still over the battlefield.

“!”

The large body staggered. The enemy was off balance.

Wounded yet again, the minotaur had shown weakness. Aiz
took the opening, determined.

Kicking off the ground with enough speed to turn the stone
pavement into gravel behind her, Aiz put all her strength into a
diagonal, over-the-shoulder blow to finish it off once and for all.

“ OO!!”

“?!”

However, the enemy’s next move took Aiz by surprise.

Realizing that there wasn’t enough time to counter with the
Labrys, the minotaur swung its head instead—its mighty horns.
The crimson projections deflected Aiz’s wind-coated saber strike
on contact.

With a suddenly vulnerable girl in its sights, the minotaur
stuck its foot into the ground and swung the Labrys with all its
might.

“?!”

Wind howled.

The beast’s sheer strength tore apart the gale protecting the
silver blade.

Blown back by the overwhelming force, Aiz’s feet carved up
the stone pavement before she finally came to a stop and exam-
ined her saber.

It was trembling, the wind enchantment completely obliter-
ated.

Aiz’s hand had gone numb after absorbing the devastating im-
pact and could no longer maintain a strong grip on the hilt. While
her face was still aloof, her golden eyes opened a little wider be-
fore looking up at what stood before her.

Huff! Huff! The blood-covered minotaur gasping for breath
was smiling.

Even now, the beast was ferocious, gruff, and fearless.

Aiz’s eyebrows furrowed, her eyes wide.

“Awaken, Tempest.”

Airiel’s currents engulfed her tingly arm once again, forcibly
tightening her grip with the power of wind.

The minotaur howled at its powerful, unyielding adversary,
swinging its ax directly into the charging Aiz’s path.

Their blades collided as the battle started anew, the resulting
clash knocking Hestia Familia and other onlookers backward,
when suddenly…

“NGAH!”

“GOOH?!”

Just as Aiz appeared to have gained the upper hand, the battle
was interrupted.

It was Gareth, equipped with heavy armor. Finally returning
to the battlefield, the dwarf had dropped off Ikelos on top of a
nearby building after a constant stream of complaints from the
deity (“Brats these days, I swear…”), and then he had jumped
down behind the minotaur and sliced the beast’s back with his

massive battle-ax.

“Aiz, pincer attack.”

“…! But Gareth, I—”

“Ye’re puttin’ us all at risk, actin’ like that. Tone down that ego
—don’cha agree, Finn?”

A long spear answered Gareth’s question by hurtling toward
the monster.

“……?!”

“That I do. Then again, I might not be needed with you here,
Gareth.”

Having retrieved his spear, Finn had thrown it again, and he
shrugged as it pierced the minotaur’s shoulder. Whether he had
sensed an issue with Aiz or not, he had temporarily set aside his
duties as commander to join the battle himself.

Under his stern gaze, Aiz reluctantly nodded. Three seasoned
first-tier adventurers surrounded the minotaur.

The monster put up a fight despite being seriously wounded,
but it wasn’t long before…thud!

“……!”

The battered, bruised, and bloody frame fell to one knee.

“Asterios…!”

Lido grimaced at the sight of the minotaur kneeling before the
adventurers and their silver saber, massive battle-ax, and spear.

And so the last of his kind had been rendered unable to fight.
He sensed the other Xenos like Gros and Rei shifting nearby as he

glared at those adventurers’ backs—when from out of nowhere,
three black spheres were thrown into the middle of the street.

“!”

They broke open on contact with the pavement, spewing a
stream of black smoke.

Lido’s, Gros’s, and Rei’s eyes flashed with immediate recogni-
tion.

Fels’s magic items.

“!”

“Smoke screen…!”

“This smoke, it’s spreadin’ out fast!!”

Aiz, Finn, and Gareth were stunned to see the swirling, inter-
twining smoke not only rushing toward them but threatening to
engulf the entire battlefield.

A few seconds ahead of the first-tier adventurers, Lido and his
two comrades exchanged knowing glances, gathered the last of
their strength, and all moved as one.

“ !!”

The gargoyle roared.

Other Xenos began to stir as the cry reached them, the mino-
taur immediately looking skyward.

While the tremendous roar was still ringing in their ears, the
siren took to the air and unleashed a powerful, ever-expanding
sound wave.

“““?!”””

The threatening wall of sound targeted only the first-tier ad-
venturers. The three of them froze in place, bracing against the
attack coming from behind.

Visual and aural senses.

They might have been first-tier adventurers, but a momentary
lapse was inevitable without sight and sound.

! The minotaur’s aura is…!

Gone.

Limited by the smoke obscuring their vision, her ears under
assault, Aiz couldn’t believe it when the monster’s presence
seemed to disappear into the darkness.

“I’ve seen that…!”

—Meanwhile, Hestia’s memory flared to life as she watched
the black smoke inundate the street, hiding Aiz and the other ad-
venturers from view.

On the moonlit night when she had met Fels for the first time,
only a few days prior, this same smoke had come pouring from
the black-robed figure’s sleeves before the mage brought her to
Ouranos. Another black sphere landed right in front of Hestia’s
group only a moment later, engulfing the area in a black fog.

“!”

Unable to hear Finn’s or Gareth’s voices due to the deafening
sound waves, Aiz decided to use Airiel on her own.

The torrents of air surrounding her increased in velocity and
cleared a space around her in a few moments.

Once the coiling, almost animal-like fog retreated far enough
to see, it was true. The minotaur had vanished without a trace.

—Don’t hold this against me!

Then…

The instant Aiz and the other adventurers emerged from the
fog and into Lido’s line of sight, he swelled up his chest like a bal-
loon and released it all at once. Aiz, Gareth, and Finn had been
distracted by the missing minotaur and swiftly turned to face this
new threat, but they were too late.

An inferno came streaming out of Lido’s mouth.

“A fire-breathin’ lizardman…?!”

Aiz ignored Gareth’s flabbergasted remark and enveloped
them with a protective wall of wind. However, they weren’t Lido’s
target.

The lizardman swept his head to the side along with the in-
ferno, igniting a wide area.

“?!”

Aiz’s wind alone wasn’t enough to protect the residential
buildings on either side of the street from the flames.

This being the slums, many flammable objects immediately
caught fire. Wooden materials and magic-stone products ignited,
turning the whole block into a hellscape right before their eyes.

“GROOOOOOOOOOOOOO!”

The siren and lizardman ceased their attacks and took off run-
ning the moment the gargoyle’s voice echoed through the din.

The other monsters were already barreling through the back-
streets; the Xenos were in full retreat.

“……!”

“…We’re shorthanded as it is. Cruz and the others take prior-
ity.”

Finn looked defeated as he ordered Aiz to stay put just as she
was about to give chase. The three of them included, very few ad-
venturers could still move.

“What is transpiring out there…?!”

Riveria stood motionless, making sure the barrier protecting
the townspeople remained firmly in place.

She couldn’t dismiss the magic due to the smoky black fog ob-
scuring her vision and keeping her from comprehending the situ-
ation—and her concern it might be poisonous. The people she
was tasked to protect had become her fetters.

Without someone to orchestrate their movements after Finn
joined the front line, Loki Familia had lost the offensive advan-
tage.

The adventurers were quick to regroup once Finn retook com-
mand. Gareth went to Tiona, Tione, and Bete before collecting
Ikelos and bringing them all to safety. Aiz also took part in the
rescue effort. To contain the fire, uninjured magic users joined
Riveria in freezing the area with ice magic and summoning
streams of water to douse the flames. Even Hestia Familia, who
was unable to side with either the Xenos or Loki Familia, pitched
in.

The damage was contained to a single block within ten min-
utes thanks to the powerful magic users’ efforts. The fire had been
completely extinguished.

Pillars of black smoke rose above the stone street, now a
charred, barren wasteland of rubble.

“Finn, what happened to that minotaur…?”

“…It’s underground.”

Aiz walked somberly through the middle of the street toward
Finn, who was looking at the ground.

The paving stones had broken open from underneath to form
a passageway to the area below.

“What’s this…?”

“The hole that metallic giant left behind. That monster proba-
bly passed through here to enter the sewers.”

Aiz looked with surprise at the hole where Fels’s golem had
emerged.

Indeed, there was a trail of blood leading into the darkness be-
neath the charred opening. The black monster had disappeared
into this gap during the commotion.

“…Should we pursue?”

“Yes, please do…but considering how well they pulled off the
escape, I think it’s safe to say these armed monsters are quite in-
telligent. Please don’t go after them alone.”

Finn sighed as he answered Aiz’s question, noticing that the
minotaur’s severed arm had also disappeared.

A little more time passed before other adventurers and Guild
employees arrived on the scene in a flurry.

As people still suffering from the Howl received medical atten-
tion all around him, Finn looked up at the sky and reflected on
his blunder.

“That was a mistake…This failure is on me.”

The vicious monster howls, explosive echoes, and, above all, the
stories of the townspeople fleeing from the labyrinthine district
plunged the relatively calm Orario back into chaos.

As Royman and the rest of the Guild’s upper management
blanched and issued orders to every familia left and right, adven-
turers descended upon Daedalus Street in the city’s third district,
the southeast block.

“Keh…!”

The setting sun had nearly reached the city wall, burning one
side of the boy’s face.

Bell was running.

He was in hot pursuit of the vouivre destroying everything in
its path.

“Wiene!”

Bell’s scream didn’t reach the wailing dragon girl as she
plowed forward.

Breaking through walls and racing up stairwells, the vouivre
and Bell burst out of the dungeon-like district, leaving the slum
behind.

“Eep…! EEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEKK!”

“Hey, you—adventurer! Over here! It’s over here!”

A group of demi-humans shrieked and scattered in all direc-
tions once they caught sight of the furious monster.

Leaving Daedalus Street meant that they were now careening

through busier city roads, creating a ruckus and terrified cries.
Women dressed like courtesans called out to adventurers one
after another.

Bell grew more anxious by the moment.

“Wiene, stop!”

“AAAAAAAaaa!”

He’d jumped onto her many times while passing through the
dungeon town; he’d held on to her only to get bucked off by her
undulating snakelike body. His hands were already cut up and
bloodied from trying to hold on to her sharp dragon scales. Call-
ing out to the girl had proven useless, making the task of return-
ing the garnet jewel next to impossible.

Bell had clung to her dainty upper body, and her relentless
convulsions had flung him around like a rag doll until he was dis-
lodged by a collision with a street sign and rolled across the
ground once again. Witnesses screamed, fearing for his life.

The curse should have lifted by now…!

The ominous red tint was gone from Wiene’s eyes.

Dix’s curse should have been broken. But even so, the dragon
girl’s rampage persisted.

Bell, blood flowing down his face, glanced at the messy punc-
ture wound in Wiene’s left hand.

—The spear that had pierced her.

As unfortunate as it was, there was a high possibility that
Finn’s spear attack had been exceptionally traumatic.

It was a reminder of Dix’s spear, his scornful laughter, his
wickedness.

The curse of his existence wouldn’t go away.

“There it is! Right there!!”

“?!”

Unable to stop Wiene, adventurers started appearing one by
one.

They were hesitant at first, seeing a crazed vouivre, a rare
large-category monster like a lamia, charging toward them. How-
ever, they raised their weapons, determined not to let it come any
closer.

Their longbow strings creaked with arrows at the ready; their
fingers clasped around javelins; the jewels of their staffs glinted.

Bell screamed, enough to hurt his throat, at the adventurers
lining the road and standing in their path.

“STOP—!”

However, Bell’s cry was drowned out by the adventurers’
shouts as they attacked.

A javelin plunged into the dragon’s tail; an arrow pierced her
shoulder; fire magic hit head-on. Countless broken scales fell
from her body.

“ !”

A shrill howl came from Wiene.

Writhing in pain from the adventurers’ merciless assault, she
sped up in a desperate attempt to escape from the threat.

She bowled over the adventurers in her path.

“……!!”

Bell clenched his teeth so hard they nearly snapped.

As even more adversaries gathered in the vouivre’s path, Bell
cast aside the discord and doubt in his mind and thrust his right
arm in their direction.

“Firebolt!!”

A round of Swift-Strike Magic raced toward the adventurers
preparing to attack.

“The hell?!”

“?!”

“WHOOOOOOOOOOOOOAAA!”

At their feet, off their armor, into their bodies.

An electrified inferno ignited, knocking them onto their backs
in an explosion of sparks.

Hot on Wiene’s tail, Bell rounded on those who should be his
allies, the adventurers.

“Little Rookie, you bastard!”

Red-faced adventurers roared at Bell as his burning lightning
bolts interfered with their attacks.

Lower-class, upper-class adventurers, even their familia didn’t
matter. They all seethed at the lone newbie getting in their way.

Wide-eyed women and children peeked out from the higher
floors of buildings lining the street, bearing witness to his bar-
baric actions.

Was he crazy? Did he want the drop item that much? What
was he thinking, at a time like this? Each one of his fellow adven-

turers’ criticisms cut deep into his heart and made his hands
quiver, but Bell continued casting his magic nonetheless. Protect-
ing the vouivre, chasing her down.

The endless pursuit soon reached a new arena, the Pleasure
Quarter reconstruction zone.

Formerly Ishtar Familia’s territory, it had been heavily dam-
aged during the attack from Freya Familia that drove the former
owners out of business. Many buildings still bore the scars of that
day, and piles of debris were still rampant even for the Pleasure
Quarter. Citizens had been forbidden to set foot in the area.
Brothels stood in shambles; scattered barrels and ash covered the
streets. A master-less Belit Babili overlooked a lonely, empty cas-
tle town.

The two barreled their way through the web of debris that
filled the street.

A group of adventurers had circled ahead, waiting for Bell and
Wiene directly in their path.

“……?”

Zing! Bell immediately knew something was off.

…They’re not attacking?

Weapons held at rest, even the sounds of their pursuers had
vanished.

The adventurers just stood to block Wiene’s path or perhaps
intimidatingly fire off their weapons, but the onslaught had
stopped as far as Bell could see.

Almost like they’d given up…

—No, that wasn’t it.

A cold chill zipped down the boy’s spine the instant he revoked
his own reassuring hypothesis.

They’re leading her…!

All color left Bell’s face a moment later.

“Wiene, don’t go that way!”

She was being drawn into a trap.

Nothing else mattered to Bell once he realized it, and he
screamed at the top of his lungs.

A human alongside a dwarf with a massive shield at the ready
appeared in their path. The vouivre veered away, racing down a
different passage to avoid the people blockade. Bell reached out
to grab her tail, but an arrow crossed just in front of him, denying
him the opportunity.

It came from an animal person on top of a nearby roof as if to
say, “Don’t get in the way.”

“……?”

Then Bell’s wish was proven to be in vain.

The dim backstreet suddenly opened into a wide area that was
illuminated by the setting sun.

It was like a bowl, a clearing surrounded by a ring of rubble.

The vouivre broke through an iron gate, shattering the bars
with astonishing force before the ground disappeared beneath
her, and she fell all the way to the bottom.

The stone pavement crumbled with a series of crashes until
she came to a stop at the very center. Countless adventurers stood
on the rim looking down at her from all directions.

The adventurers had conspired together—across familias.

Bell’s heart pounded even louder at the sight of so many magic
users prepared to release the spells they had on standby.

He dove into the clearing without missing a step.

“Little Rookie! Stand down!”

“You crazy or something?! You’ll die!”

Adventurers shouted angry warnings at the boy the moment
he landed.

“Doesn’t matter! Just do iiit!”

A man who seemed to have lost himself in the chaos shouted
from somewhere around the rim, and his voice set everything in
motion.

Innumerable flashes of magical energy erupted in a volley of
simultaneous spells.

“ .”

The fusillade descended directly toward the center of the
clearing.

Wiene’s eyes shrank, her face briefly illuminated before the
light engulfed her.

“AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!”

Magic explosions drowned out the monster’s shriek.

Wiene disappeared amid the roaring wind.

“ !”

Bell raced forward.

Streaking flames, electrical discharges, and icy wind rocked
his body back and forth as he made a break for the middle of the
clearing.

No matter how much his skin was scorched, his hair sizzled, or
his body burned with frost, Bell rushed to reach the girl at the eye
of the swirling vortex of magic energy.

A wordless scream burst from his lungs.

Time slowed to a nauseating crawl.

Trapped in this world without time, Bell reached out.

There, amid the flickering magic energy, was a scale-less
dragon monster staring up at the sky.

Smoke was rising from all over its body; its faint silver-blue
hair swished back and forth as its ash-colored extremities started
rotting away.

Catching a glimpse of the approaching boy, she looked at him
with vacant eyes as her lips formed one word:

Bell.

“!!!!”

Bell thrust his hand forward with all his strength and was just
about to reach her, when suddenly—

A crimson spearhead plunged through her chest.

“ .”

The missile had been thrown from behind Bell.

It was a cursed blade with a deep-seated grudge.

“HAH! Hya-ha-ha-ha! AH-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA-HA! Got
it! I finished it off!”

A large man hooted with the scornful laughter of the insane.

Half his face missing, the stocky human’s cackling set time in
motion again.

The skewered girl’s body started to tilt ever so slightly in front
of Bell’s eyes.

“—Wiene!”

Just as the crying boy’s scream rang out—the ground gave
way.

“What’s that?!”

“It’s caving in!”

The clearing crumbled at the center, the focal point of the
magic volley.

The stones disappeared from beneath his feet, and he fell right
along with her.

Bell grabbed hold of the girl falling into darkness and em-
braced her.

Adventurers and magic users shielded their faces with their arms,
motionlessly observing the scene below.

A cave-in.

Swelling clouds of dust in the air.

A gaping hole had opened in the center of the bowl, making

the area resemble a man-made inverse anthill. Crumble! Crack! A
few stone fragments collapsed into the hole as if only just realiz-
ing what had happened.

Designed by Daedalus himself, secret underground passage-
ways crisscrossed beneath the Pleasure Quarter. One of these un-
derground tunnels passed under the bowl, meaning the space be-
neath the clearing was hollow to begin with. Unable to withstand
the cascade of magic, the stone pavement had collapsed in on it-
self.

A few adventurers cleared their throats, filling the silence.

The boy and the vouivre had fallen deep into the hole and dis-
appeared without a trace.

“Ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha-ha!”

There was a large human among them, laughing like a mad-
man.

It was Ikelos Familia’s Gran. The last surviving hunter had
used a key to return to the surface via Knossos’s stairwell and,
lost in his own rage, hurled Dix’s spearhead at Wiene.

“Did you see that, Dix?! I killed the beast, killed it dead! Me,

all me !”

“!!”

A gargoyle claw plummeted from the sky and crushed the de-
ranged man.

Gros had witnessed the shining beacon from the air after es-
caping from Loki Familia and led the winged monsters in a dash

to the clearing. That was when he saw it.

The gargoyle, having ended the hunter’s life for sure this time,
stood amid the adventurers’ screams and gawked at the hole
where Bell and Wiene had fallen, trembling.

“ OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!”

“A flying monster?! What’s it so upset about?!”

“Dammit, let’s get out of here!”

The Xenos went wild.

With the last vestiges of strength in their badly injured bodies,
they rushed after the screaming adventurers in full retreat.

All so that the boy and girl could spend their last moments to-
gether uninterrupted.

A steady stream of sand and rubble poured down around them
like an hourglass counting down the remaining time.

The stone and debris of a dark underground tunnel sur-
rounded them.

A red sky looked down on Bell embracing the girl’s limp body
from a hole over their heads.

“Wiene…Wiene?!”

Eyes glistening with tears, he took hold of the cursed spear-
head lodged in her chest.

The curse was already eating into her flesh. Pulling the
wickedly curved blade from the girl’s body, Bell cast it aside with

a dry clang.

The light-blue body twitched.

Bell withdrew the garnet jewel from his pouch and pressed it
into the limp girl’s forehead.

Although a faint flicker passed through the reddish stone, the
girl in his arms didn’t move.

In fact—thud!

The long dragon tail was turning to ash.

“…?!”

Deep inside the spear wound in her chest…

The bloody purple crystal just visible inside the opening was
cracked.

Outer portions of her body turned to ash, falling away as the
crack expanded.

“No…Don’t!!”

Bell kept yelling, bawling like a child.

Don’t, don’t do this—don’t go. He repeated the same words
over and over again.

An endless stream of tears fell from his eyes, squeezed shut,
and dripped onto her cheeks as she lay weakly in his embrace.

“…Be…ll?”

“!”

Bell’s eyes flew open the instant he heard her weak whispers,

barely more than breaths.

Wiene was awake. The light had returned to her amber eyes,
peeking out from behind her cracked eyelids.

Her cheeks were still solid and elongated.

She gazed up at Bell, so feebly she seemed about to expire at
any moment.

“Wiene……!”

“…Be…ll…I’m…so sorry.”

She apologized in a hoarse voice, fixated on Bell’s bleeding
face.

As the sound of crumbling ash grew louder in his ears, Bell
shook his head over and over.

He laughed through his tears with a smile that could hardly
pass as genuine.

“I’m fine, just fine, so…don’t worry about me, just…!! Please,
Wiene—!”

—Don’t disappear.

Bell tightened his grip on her shoulder, pleading with all his
heart.

Trembling, Wiene pressed her cheek against the boy’s chest,
smiling as if all was right with the world while tears welled up in
her amber eyes.

Fsh…a faint sound came from her chest as her dragon ab-
domen crumbled to the floor.

“…I…had a dream.”

“You did…?”
Only Wiene’s humanlike torso remained as she gazed up into
Bell’s wide eyes.
“No one…would save me…It was so scary.”
She was turning to ash in his arms.
The last moments of her life ticking away, Wiene lifted a quiv-
ering hand.
“But, you know?”
It softly brushed against his cheek, crumbling on contact.
Her voice barely audible between sobs, Wiene continued.
“This time…someone came…Someone saved me.”
Bell’s eyes opened as wide as they would go.
“I’m so happy…”
She closed her eyes, and a single transparent tear ran down
her cheek.
Her lips parted, but a single dream, one tiny desire, held her
close.
In that moment, the exceptional girl was whole.
Her body was dissolving.
The girl’s form was becoming unrecognizable.
“Thank you,” she said to the shocked boy.
As she cried, a smile bloomed on her lips.

Then…
“Bell…I love you.”





She was gone.
She had crumbled.
Ash flowed through Bell’s fingers.
Her warmth had vanished.
“ .”
Time stood still as unyielding tears silently slid down Bell’s

cheeks.
The motes of ash drifted gently around him, glimmering in the

light and fading as his memories of her did the same.
Their meeting.
The fear.
The sadness.
Bewilderment.
Touch.
Gratitude.
Name.
Joy.
Smile.
Embrace.
Tears.
Amid the ash falling from his chest, only the beautiful reddish

jewel remained intact.

“Agh, aaggghhhhhhhhhhhhhh—”

His heart was breaking.

A hole had opened in his core.

His throat quivered, but just before a wail could follow…

“O untrodden domain, O forbidden wall. Today on this day,
I turn my back on the laws of heaven—”

The words of a spell echoed.

“?!”

Tears flew from his cheeks as Bell whirled around to look over
his shoulder. It was the black-robed mage.

“Rod of Asclepius, Goblet of Salus. O ye who is beyond the
power of healing—I ask you to wait.”

A white magic circle expanded by the moment. The twinkling
magic energy surpassed the realms of human comprehension.

Bell watched with wide eyes as Fels continued to chant in a
loud voice.

“Lord’s judgment, lightning of conviction. Shall I be burned,
rejecting your providence—”

The white magic energy illuminating the underground tunnel
burst through the hole overhead, forming a white pillar that
reached to the heavens.

Everyone in Orario, both monsters and people, spotted the
beam piercing the twilight.

“That light—Fels?!”

“……?!”

Rei and Gros had successfully driven off the adventurers and
were now carrying a badly injured Lido over their shoulders. The
lizardman whispered in disbelief as all three stared at the bright
light coming out from the cracks in the pavement under their
feet.

“Lady Hestia!!”

“A deity being sent home…? No, it’s not!”

Hestia was checking up on her familia’s condition when Welf
got her attention by pointing to the pillar of light.

“Finn…”

“From the Pleasure Quarter…Bell Cranell—no, the vouivre?”

Loki Familia’s adventurers stared up at the heavens as well.

“Using that now, are you, Fels…?”

A wizened deity closed his eyes.

“That light, how many times have I seen it now?”

A silver-haired Goddess of Beauty smiled from her vantage
point at the top of the giant tower.

“Somethin’ big’s goin’ down…”

So said a goddess with cinnabar-red hair, sitting cross-legged
on a rooftop.

“A miracle if I’ve ever seen one.”

A god narrowed his eyes beneath his traveler’s hat.

“—I shall journey to the realm of the dead myself.”
The song’s tempo increased.
As the magic circle glowed even brighter, Bell’s face and the
black robe disappeared in the white light.

“Gates of Charon, over the river of time. Lend your ears, O
Lord. Listen to this deranged melody.”

It was a reverberating, majestic tune. A divine harmony.
And a sinful deed that went against the laws of the earth.

“Never-ending tears, lamenting wails. The price has already
been paid.”

It was taboo magic conjured with an extremely long chant.
It could overturn predetermined fate, a secret technique capa-
ble of defying an irreversible, absolute truth.

“O path of light. I ask you to sacrifice the given past and cast
light on this foolish desire.”

Resurrection magic granted to only the Sage of old.

“Yes, I will not turn away.”
The conjuring was complete, the magic energy at its peak.
And a request was made in exchange for all of Fels’s Mind.

“Dia Orpheus.”

The pillar of light began to flake apart.

In its place, millions upon millions of light fractals over-
whelmed the underground tunnel.

Sparkling white jewels fell like snow. Bell’s wide eyes glittered
with the reflections as a high-pitched tone filled the air, and the
pieces began spiraling into a single point.

Lastly, soft blue light from beneath the magic circle swirled
into Bell’s chest.

The light pillar shattered a moment later with the sound of
breaking glass.

Bell reflexively shut his eyes to protect them against the blind-
ing flash that turned the world white for an instant, shuddering
as weight and warmth returned to his chest.

Slowly, cautiously, Bell opened his eyes as if in prayer…only to
see the dragon girl, eyes closed and curled up against his chest.

“Aa .”

A small cry escaped him as his vision blurred and he placed a
hand on her cheek.

Cold. And yet warm. He felt a soft beat. She was breathing.

She had four supple, humanlike limbs. Gone were the dragon
wings, and the piles of ash on the floor were noticeably smaller
than before.

The reddish jewel embedded in her forehead started to glow,
spotlighting Bell’s eyes.

“…That…was my first success.”

Plop! A dull thud sounded soon after.

The black-robed mage fell to a seat on the floor behind Bell,

every ounce of energy and willpower spent.

“Eight hundred years, has it been…? How I loathed this point-
less magic, this useless hope that took up one of my Status slots
all this time…”

Bell met the mage’s gaze, certain he could feel a smile coming
from beneath the hood.

Fels looked up, staring into empty space.

“But yes…there was a point.”

Tears flowed from Bell’s eyes as he watched Fels struggle to
form the words.

The boy then turned his attention to the girl, feeling the
warmth in her cheek once again—and embraced her with all his
strength.

A single, transparent tear trickled out from between the girl’s
closed eyelids.

The sun sank into the west.

The white pillar piercing the heavens had vanished without a
trace.

The world had been momentarily cast in white light, but it was
now silent. Twilight returned to Orario, leaving behind only con-
fused townspeople and the excited whispers of deities.

In a corner of the slum in the white tower’s shadow…

Finn was receiving an update underneath the evening light.

“Sorry, Finn…A water main broke halfway through…and we
had to give up the chase.”

“The winged monsters that appeared in the Pleasure Quarter
also vanished into the sewers beneath the broken courtyard…
There’s no trace of them.”

“I see…What of Bell Cranell? The vouivre?”

“He is still missing. However, on the spot where he fell along
with the vouivre…we discovered traces of blood among a great
deal of what appeared to be monster ashes.”

Finn said nothing, running his tongue along the base of his
thumb as he listened to Aiz and Riveria’s report.

Out of the corner of his eye, he took note of Aiz’s reaction to
Riveria’s information and added, “All right, thank you,” with a
nod. The prum general dismissed the two women and cast his
gaze back over the battlefield.

“So they got away in the end…”

He whispered while surveying the damaged and burned
cityscape.

At long last, he started issuing new orders to Loki Familia,
which had been busy helping the other adventurers attending to
the wounded and rescuing people from the rubble.

“……”

Aiz watched him in silence before gazing at her own hand,
then silently raised her head toward the sky.

The red sun was about to sink below the city.

Bell quietly stared ahead, hidden deep in the shadows where